Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) Issues Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.27 EPS

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.96 by $0.27, Zacks reports. Stifel Financial had a net margin of 14.00% and a return on equity of 16.59%.

Stifel Financial Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of SF stock opened at $117.76 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.87 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $110.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.57. Stifel Financial has a twelve month low of $71.36 and a twelve month high of $120.64.

Stifel Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. This is an increase from Stifel Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Stifel Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.92%.

Insider Transactions at Stifel Financial

In other news, COO David D. Sliney sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.18, for a total transaction of $2,904,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 159,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,544,535.42. This represents a 13.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 4.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SF. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Stifel Financial in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $120.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com lowered Stifel Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Stifel Financial from $128.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Stifel Financial from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Stifel Financial from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Stifel Financial currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.33.

About Stifel Financial

Stifel Financial Corp., a financial services and bank holding company, provides retail and institutional wealth management, and investment banking services to individual investors, corporations, municipalities, and institutions in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Global Wealth Management, Institutional Group, and Other.